Former President, Mr John Dramani Mahama has challenged the NPP-government to come clean and tell Ghanaians the exact state of the economy.
That, he said, will inform stakeholders to come on board and support the government to salvage the situation.
Mr Mahama threw the challenge when the Executives of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), paid a courtesy call on him on Friday, October 21, 2022 with the media at his office.
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Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Mahama observed that the Ghanaian economy was terrible, adding that Ghana had never in its history been in a place like this.
According to him, when he personally raised the red flags that the economy may crush, the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori Atta painted a rosy economy and ignored the red flags.
He also said if the opposition had the support of the media, CSO’s and other moral voices of the society, Ghana’s economy would not have been where it was now.
Meanwhile, he said instead of the government in circumstances like these of national crisis to seek support from the best brains, they have refused to do so, adding that during his time, he called on stakeholders for a forum and it did not change his stature as President.
Mr Mahama stressed that the economy was in danger or crushing, adding that even how to survive until that IMF Programme was going to be very difficult.
“Instead of government in circumstances like these of national crisis, what you do is you rally the country together so that everybody comes on board to support us getting out of the crisis. Even at the time we were raising the red flag about the economy, they said the economy was robust. If your ship is sinking and ships are passing by and ask if you need any help and you say no and that the economy is fine, you will sink and that is why we have come to the reality of the situation,” he said.
He continued, “We all need to come on board to see how best to salvage it, but the first thing is the government should come clean and tell us what the state of the economy is.” You must put everything on the table, and that is why I call for a national dialogue. I am saying that we bring the best brains together. I have been President before. It served me well. I called for a forum and it did not reduce my stature as a President. All participants came except NPP. They boycotted that forum. But it presented a very good document, which eventually is what we took to the IMF. So by the time we went knocking on the doors of the IMF, we already had our programme. These people have gone to the IMF, not ready, no programme, nothing. It is only now that they have been able to put a programme together in a non-transparent way.
Recently, he observed a non-government actor was accusing the media of talking the cedi down, saying that, ” teh ceid is down, it is not the media that is talking it down, and government must act as quickly as possible because the slippery slope down which we are going if action is not taken quickly, it would be catastrophic for all of us.”
Meanwhile, Mr Mahama called on the media to be more vigilant at this time when the country is facing such economic challenges.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori